Windshield Wipers
 

It's that time of the year again when the sky starts pissing rain around the lower mainland all day errrday :okay:


My car has stock windshield wipers that are in need of a replacement (not all the water is being wiped off and streaks are being left). They haven't been replaced in years and now I'm looking for new ones

Are any of you guys running aftermarket windshield wipers? If you can provide me with the brand, where you purchased them, and a quick review of them that would be great. I'm planning on hitting up Canadian Tire and see what they have this weekend


TIA :fullofwin:

Bosch Icons if you want HD vision on the road.

If you have a costco membership, the Michelin Stealth Wipers are on sale, 20 dollars tax in for the pair.

Not sure about the other automakers, but for Mitsubishi you can just buy the rubber inserts for less than $10 each side instead of replacing the whole wiper.

PIAA brand from overseas auto is sweet. Feels like im driving a high end luxury car .. very quiet + do a really good job for a good price.

^ this.

Do you guys encounter this ?

http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/93/img0080b.jpg

My wipers are about 9 months old.
Every time my left one removes the rain, it leaves beside this smear that dries up in about 15seconds. The smear is pretty much...half of the driver side of the windshield
Is it time to replace them or is my windshield just dirty?
I probably need to change them anyways but I tried on the ones from my friends Mazda 3 which are 2 weeks old and they still smear.
Not sure if his are already worn or w.e or just have a dirty windshield.
9 month old car shouldn't a dirtier windshield than any of your cars....garage parked all the time :badpokerface:

you can always take some times to thoroughly clean the outside of your windshield.

use a bit of steel wool on the outside windshield to clean off any grime, ull be surprised how clean ur windows will be!

I've clay bar'd my windshield a couple times to remove all the grit. Works great.

Plus, clean the wiper blades. People, including me, forget to do this on a regular basis. Prolongs the life of the blades. Not because you're cheap........... ok, maybe...... but because it's a waste. Since I started cleaning the wiper blades with alcohol, no more streaks and shit. I guess you can use just about anything to clean the rubber/silicone/whathaveyou, as long as it doesn't react with the material. Those disposable wipes for cleaning glasses seem to work fine. No fuss, no mess.

Piaa's are the way to go. Lordco has them as well. I've been using 1 set for the last 5 years. Still does its job well.

OEM rubber insert refill > anything that Crappy Tires sell....


9 months is a LONG time. Of course....that's unless your car is driven by a typical Richmond C-Lai that use it for less than 3KM / day just for grocery shopping....

Running Bosch with aquapel

Little known tidbit. Piaa refill inserts will fit other wiper frames. YMMV.

Personal experience, love the Piaa silicone wipers. Overseas is going to be cheaper than Lordco unless you have mad discounts with them.

On my DD, I am using cheapo Walmart wipers. Since they are less than 6 months old, the wipers work great.

I've tried a whack load of different wiper brands over the years... PIAA, Bosch, even the generic Canadian Tire ones. To be honest, I've yet to discover a real discernable difference between them all. Sure, some worked slightly better clearing snow off the windshield first thing in the morning, but for basic rain storms... nah, it's not worth paying the extra $50 for a set of PIAA's over generic ones. So long as you occasionally clean the blades and windshield properly, they all work basically the same.

I just buy the cheap-o wipers. Plan on getting 1 rainy season, replace them next year.


Every time I fuel up I clean my blades... makes them like new!

Also make sure you slap some RainX on your windshield, helps out a bit too. Water just beads and slides off, and wipers glide silky smooth. Been using RainX for years, love the stuff.

I feel the same way. The expensive ones are more than double the cheap Crappy tire ones. The rubber in the blades tend to harden/and break down over time regardless - I think it's better to just replace them more often with the cheap ones.

The only difference is how long the wipers last. Cheapo wipers usually last 1 year but near the end they suck badly.
My first set of Piaa silicone wipers came with my car and they worked fine in the rain alll 5 years that I had the car. Sure they streaked a little on the first few wipes, but after that they worked just like new.
My new set of Piaa's for the wife's car cost $50 for the set. Cheapo wipers from Walmart, similar sizes as the wife's car, cost just over $25.

If your car uses larger than normal wiper blades Costco is hard to beat. Wipers are on sale right now at Costco for less than 10 bucks each taxes in for any size.
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rainx + aquapel is helpful, but actually reduces the lifespan of your wipers .

What do you guys use to clean the wipers with? Wouldn't alcohol dry out the rubber and shorten the life?

I've used RainX in the past but it caused the wipers to start skipping/shuddering instead of being smooth.

Maybe windshield washer fluid is the logical choice.

the rain x spray can shit works awesome. couldn't find it anymore though. had to settle for the windshield washer fluid instead... they probably make more from it...that can lasted me years :fullofwin:

RainX does what its supposed to do, but I found there's a lot of glare at night.

Used Bosch Icons in the past, now using the cheaper variant, and there's not too much of a difference. The more expensive ones do feel marginally better.

Will probably go to Costco if they're on sale haha

Remember to use a good glass cleaner on the outside of the glass as SG mentioned. Last time, I was in a rush and only had Chlorox wipes. Worked great cause it took off a lot of oil that had accumulated onto the windsheild.
That should help a lot with the wipers streaking.

rainX and products like it are just wax, works great until you use your wipers... and because its just wax it smears and causes streaks after a while and it cuts your wiper life in half, glass polish your window clean, like posted above steel wool will work.

I used steel wool and some normal car polish and it gets rid of water spots and any existing dirt/grime accumulated and just give my wipers a wipe with a cloth and some water, in my washer fluid bottle i have normal washer fluid good for winter and i also mixed some weak de-greaser in it, about 1 part de-greaser 5 parts washer fluid, keeps everything clean :D